Unique Sleeping Accommodations In a 727

This week I've explored the idea of sleeping in a bedroom underwater and in a glass igloo but now comes the idea of sleeping in a 727. What's so unique about that, you ask? Everyone who flies any length of time has slept on a plane flight. This is not a plane flight.

In Costa Rica at the Hotel Costa Verde you can get some unusual accommodations in a refitted Boeing 727. It was a plane that was salvaged when taken out of service and secured in a hillside with a view. The inside was totally renovated to include two bedrooms, each with its own bath, a kitchenette and microwave and of course a flat screen TV.

An ocean view terrace is attached and there is a private entrance up a river rock, spiral staircase. Lots of surrounding garden--it's Costa Rica, a rain forest.

The inside is an all wood interior and furnishings are hand carved teak. It looks a bit like a rustic lodge room. Pictures are at the hotel's website. 

This accommodation, unlike the previous two, is actually somewhat affordable. Prices range from just under $300 to around $800 depending upon the season.

Sleeping Underwater

We love to dive. Put on the gear, jump in the water, spend thirty to fifty minutes exploring and enjoying the marine life, then pop to the surface and live to dive another day. There are other ways though to enjoy underwater sea life including submarine rides for tourists, snorkeling, and of course for those who want to stay above sea level, aquariums.

But would you ever in you wildest imagination consider sleeping in a room underwater? I came across an unusual resort that has an underwater bedroom. It's called the Manta Resort and is in Zanzibar. Out in the middle of a bay, a fancy houseboat of sorts is anchored. The roof is a sundeck and the living area is at sea level but the bedroom is straight down a built in ladder to an underwater room.

The sides of the room of course are all acrylic so you can observe the sea life around you. You can turn on small lights at night to attract and see some of the night critters like octopus. Turning the lights off though apparently gives you a view of the bio-luminescent creatures, which if you watch the video, might just keep you up all night with flashes of light.

Me, I'd be up all night worried that a good wind and a rough sea would break the anchor lines and we'd float off to the middle of the ocean. Bob--he'd be up all night wondering how we were going to pay for a room that costs $1500 USD/night. Guess we'll pass on this one.

B&B or Hotel? Where Would You Stay?

View of Bay of Islands from Allegra House

[This was a popular post back in 2016 when I first posted it. I thought it was worth repeating as many of you will be planning your summer travel if you haven't already.]

There are times when I'd rather stay in a hotel than a B&B but so often we've had a much better stay in the latter. Why? Because the hosts are usually eager to make your stay the very best it can be. They are a valuable source of local information. Often there are things to see and do that they can suggest that are not found in your travel guide. They also know the best times to go, the great foods to order and try, the easiest ways to get somewhere.

A hotel will usually have a concierge who can do a lot to book places for you and suggest restaurants and get you transportation if you need it but somehow it just isn't quite the same as the friendly B&B hosts we've had. It is so much more businesslike rather than homey.

The B&B will also create a more intimate atmosphere for all of those staying with them and you will undoubtedly have breakfast with other travelers who seem to be a lot more friendly in that type of atmosphere. Shared adventures and information are all a part of a great travel experience.

Breakfast at a B&B can be quite exquisite or very down home. We have stayed in one where the smell of fresh baked scones woke us every morning and another where eggs were gathered from the hens in the backyard. I never knew fresh eggs could taste so good.

Often the B&B will be a less expensive way to travel but if you are looking for luxury, a hotel is not necessarily the way to go. There are some truly luxurious B&Bs. Yes, you will pay more but the experience just might be worth the price.

On the other hand, we have stayed in a couple "bare bones" B&Bs where we got the minimum and were glad to have only spent a night or two. Of course that can be said about a few hotels as well. Bottom line: DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Find the reviews and make your decision. If you are the friendly-want-to-meet-people person try the B&B.

Robotic Answer to Germaphobia

There have been many reports online and on TV about places we stay when we travel not being truly clean. I remember vividly the video my daughter-in-law pointed out that was taken of a hotel maid wiping out the drinking glass with the same rag she'd used to clean the bathroom. I've only used paper cups since then.

Another daughter-in-law after an experience with bedbugs at a vacation rental, has often mentioned how to check for them. (I'm guessing my sons take these things in stride. So happy the wives look out for them.)

I've never thought too much about the sheets on the bed. I realize assuming makes an. . .well, you know the saying, but I've always assumed the sheets have been changed and they are fresh. Along comes a Rosen report from NBC that says, hold on, maybe not. Sheets were sprayed with invisible inik of some sort and the crew checked out of the room. Another crew checked into the room as new guests after it had been "cleaned" and ran an infrared light over the sheet to find the words "not clean" that the other crew had left.

Along comes the Cleansebot to the rescue. Thanks to a FB friend, I discovered this little gadget that apparently is taking off. The Kickstarter I saw had over $170,000 dollars, well past their goal. Is Shark Tank next? But I digress.

The Cleansebot is a small portable device that you can set lose between the covers on your bed and using UV rays, it will cleanse away any nasty bacteria lurking there. There is also a hand held extension that will let you sanitize those TV remotes and phones, etc. in the room.

So I guess if you are truly worried about such things, there is a solution. I'm not sure I'm ready--and no, it doesn't get rid of bedbugs.

Is My Stuff Safe In The Hotel Room?

Yes and no. A lot depends upon you. There is usually a safe in the room. Use it. When you are out of the room your electronics and your valuables should go into the safe. If there is no safe in the room then your valuables can go into the hotel safe if you ask the manager.

We have been known to travel with our electronics in a back pack if they won't fit in the room safe but if you do this, you really have to be careful. Wear your back pack in front of you or turn it around so that the zippers are on the side against your back if you are in a busy crowded area. That is the place where thieves are most likely to operate--probably even more so than in your hotel room.

According to an article in Smarter Travel, hotel housekeeping is rarely the source of stolen items from your hotel room but there is no reason to tempt anyone. Pick up your personal items and tuck them away. Not only will you be making their job easier, you will keep them from unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally) looking them over. Housekeeping doesn't have a lot of time in each room so the chances of someone rifling through your things are pretty low.

A more likely scenario is that you might flip that safety bar that keeps your door from opening more than six inches to the other side to keep your door from locking you out as you run to the ice or soda machine thereby allowing anyone passing by to give a quick look and perhaps snatch something you have out in the open. Always, always lock your door when you leave the room.

What Happens To That Leftover Soap In The Hotel?

What do you do with the unused amenities in that hotel bathroom when you leave? Do you take them with you? Sometimes I do. If we've only used a little of the shampoo and conditioner or the lotion, I take them with me especially if they are a nice brand that works well. I hate waste.

The bar of unused soap however is always left behind. I just can't bring myself to tuck a wet soft bar of used soap into my suitcase--even in a plastic bag. So, what happens to those amenities that are left behind? Having an inquiring mind and a search engine I looked it up.

Who knew there were actually organizations that are in the business of recycling those products for the benefit of those who are in need? I ran across several organizations in different parts of the world. In New Zealand and Australia the organization is called Soap Aid. Then there is the Global Soap Project which has joined forces with Orlando based Clean The World. Many of the larger hotel chains are on board with the project even though Clean The World charges fifty cents a room to recycle the soaps. Another, the Eco Soap Bank, has a similar program and sends the recycled soap to remote regions of developing countries.

The soaps and other amenities are sanitized repackaged and then sent to other areas of the country and world for distribution to those in need whether it be just a poor area or an area hit with a disaster where people have lost homes or are displaced for a time.

Before I pack up those half used amenities from now on I'll be asking if the hotel recycles. I don't understand why they don't let the guests know on one of those little cards. They keep telling me to hang up my towels. Why not tell me if they recycle the leftover amenities?

What Would You Book - A B&B Or A Hotel?

View of Bay of Islands from Allegra House

There are times when I'd rather stay in a hotel than a B&B but so often we've had a much better stay in the latter. Why? Because the hosts are usually eager to make your stay the very best it can be. They are a valuable source of local information. Often there are things to see and do that they can suggest that are not found in your travel guide. They also know the best times to go, the great foods to order and try, the easiest ways to get somewhere.

A hotel will usually have a concierge who can do a lot to book places for you and suggest restaurants and get you transportation if you need it but somehow it just isn't quite the same as the friendly B&B hosts we've had. It is so much more businesslike rather than homey.

The B&B will also create a more intimate atmosphere for all of those staying with them and you will undoubtedly have breakfast with other travelers who seem to be a lot more friendly in that type of atmosphere. Shared adventures and information are all a part of a great travel experience.

South Wharf, Melbourne, Australia

Breakfast at a B&B can be quite exquisite or very down home. We have stayed in one where the smell of fresh baked scones woke us every morning and another where eggs were gathered from the hens in the backyard. I never knew fresh eggs could taste so good.

Often the B&B will be a less expensive way to travel but if you are looking for luxury, a hotel is not necessarily the way to go. There are some truly luxurious B&Bs. Yes, you will pay more but the experience just might be worth the price.


On the other hand, we have stayed in a couple "bare bones" B&Bs where we got the minimum and were glad to have only spent a night or two. Of course that can be said about a few hotels as well. Bottom line: DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Find the reviews and make your decision. If you are the friendly-want-to-meet-people person try the B&B.

Sleeping With The Fish

Around here we are big on fish. We love scuba diving. We love our saltwater aquarium. One of us loves to catch fish and we both love to eat them. Sleeping with them would be a whole different dynamic but not impossible--at least not in Dubai, the city where the biggest, the largest, the most unusual can be found. 

In addition to its indoor ski resort, huge aquarium in a mall and world's tallest building, you can now find a place to sleep in luxury surrounded by walls that look into a huge aquarium. The place is an Atlantis hotel built at the end of the Palm, a man made island that extends into the ocean and is in the shape of a palm tree. 

If you've ever been to Nassau in the Bahamas, you've seen the iconic Atlantis Hotel with the arch. The same design is used in Dubai. On a tour of Dubai we were driven out on to the island, went past the hotel but we couldn't get out and explore. I had no idea until I came across a story about it that the Atlantis had two suites, the Poseidon and the Neptune, that surround you with floor to ceiling walls that look into the Ambassador Lagoon that is filled with three million gallons of water containing more than 65,000 marine animals including sharks and sting rays. I'm guessing it would not be a good idea to tune into Shark Week on Discovery before you go.

The idea of an underwater suite really outdoes the infamous water bed in the James Bond movie that was filled with fish. Didn't someone die on that?

Well back to the luxury suite. As with many of the luxury hotel suites in Dubai the bathroom has 24k gold fixtures and comes with a butler. If you book a package deal you can swim with the sharks and stingrays. I've met up with sharks and stingrays diving but sleeping with them surrounding me. . .well, I don't know. I can think of lots of other places I'd rather spend $5,000 to $8,000 which is what the suite will cost you depending upon the season. 

Hotel Booking? Beware

Several travel adventures are planned for our upcoming year. While just going and finding places to stay along the way with no planning ahead might sound adventurous, it's not in my DNA. I need to know where I'm placing my head on a pillow each night. When we book our stays, we consider quite a few things besides price and availability starting with the reviews on TripAdvisor. Look at the good and bad reviews and the dates they were posted. Things may have changed since the most recent review listed there.

Beware of those pictures on the hotel website that are just really too good to be true. You can make anything look really good with the right angle, lighting and a little computer magic. Check out the photos on TripAdvisor that have been taken by people who actually stayed there. They'll be a lot more realistic.

When the place we want to stay is in an area we are really not familiar with, we drop one of those little yellow men that Google has on its Google Maps page in a spot where we can look around and see what the neighborhood looks like. It's been helpful too when we arrive especially if we are on foot and dragging luggage. A few landmarks as seen on Google Maps makes us feel a little more secure about finding our hotel without getting lost. It certainly would have been helpful years ago when we booked a hotel that was nice enough but in the middle of a bunch of car factories in a German city.

An email to confirm or even a phone call will help to verify the kind of service you can expect. If your accommodations are in a foreign country it also helps to know that they can respond in English if necessary.

And if you are really paranoid about bed bugs, you might want to check the bed bug registry. It's a place where you can check to see if there was ever a problem with bed bugs that was reported. I don't know how reliable it is. There are some really nice hotels on the list and some of the reports are very old. Best advice is to check the TripAdvisor reviews and then always check the bed before you drop your suitcases. Here's a link to a USA Today article on how to check.

A little careful planning helps keep that travel adventure memorable in a good way.

Those Hotel Booking Challenges

When our son is on the road heading to our house or his in-laws, he loves the challenge of using Priceline for booking his night's stay. Thank goodness his family is adventuresome because they pull into the parking lot and go online on his smartphone to book. They have gotten some great deals and some not so great. Bob and I, on the other hand, are not quite so adventurous when it comes time to where we are going to put our heads to rest for the night.

If you are a plan-ahead type one of the best ways to assure a good room is to join the chain's loyalty program. When you book on their website and use your loyalty card you usually get a better choice of rooms. One article I read said that the Priceline and other low price sites to book through get the "ice machine" rooms or basically whatever is left. With our booking we have even been able a couple of times to choose our own room. Of course that's not always best if you don't know what side the freeway is on. Just sayin'.

If you have any special requests or concerns, you can always call before arriving to be sure your room is what you expect. For example the king size bed rather than two doubles and certainly a smoking/non-smoking preference.

Use a credit card rather than debit or cash. You have a lot more recourse if you are wrongly charged for something. Besides, the right credit card can earn you points toward more travel.

Double, make that triple check that you have the right hotel in the right place when you are booking online. For that matter make sure you have the correct date as well. We booked the wrong night once and arrived to find we did not have a room reserved until the next night. Luckily there was a room available but it had us scurrying to check the rest of our reservations for that trip.

And probably something I should have started with is to check reviews and compare prices of different hotels in the same area. Reviews are especially important. Those online pictures may show some wonderful amenities and property views but the tale is told best in the reviews you can find online at places like TripAdvisor.

While booking on the fly night by night might be a great adventure, I prefer to know where I'm getting my Zzzzzs ahead of time.

A Room With A View

We just finished booking our stay at the East End in Grand Cayman for our annual dive trip with our grandson. I love The Reef Resort which has now been taken over by the Wyndam. This year we'll be renting a condo from one of the owners of a time share. The nice thing about the condos is that they all have an ocean view--a real ocean view.

I remember several times when we've booked a room with a view and it's been a partial view of the ocean and sometimes only if you stepped to one end of the window and placed your cheek against the glass to be able to see it. I think enough people have complained about the misdirection in the room description that now you get "partial ocean view" in the listing.

There are lots of other views that are spectacular other than an ocean and if you can afford to splurge I can tell you that the views from the Grand Canyon El Tovar Lodge are great. Our room didn't look out on the canyon but we did sit out front often and take in the view. We also visited the Many Glacier Lodge in Glacier National Park for lunch one day and sighed as we wondered what it would have been like to have the beautiful view of the lake and mountains from a room there.

One of the most spectacular views I've seen was that from the lobby of the Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park.

And lest we forget, there are always amazing views from a cruise ship (unless you get an inside cabin). The views of the ocean are generally unobstructed as long as your stateroom window isn't blocked by a lifeboat. Just be sure to check the deck plans carefully. Then there's always the Royal Caribbean ships like the Oasis and Allure and the newer ones that have views of the interior that can be very interesting.

When booking a room with a view be sure to check out several review spots online and get tips on which rooms are the best for a view. Just remember that a view comes with a price and think about how much time you are actually going to spend in that room looking at the view. If it's worth it, book it!

The Luxury Hotel Without The High Price Of A Room

Confession time. Yes, we've done it. We've walked into the lobby of an expensive posh hotel and not stayed the night. Some of the truly lavish hotels have lobbies that are amazing and worth a look, even a sit-down in a lobby chair and a little people watching just for fun. Smarter Travel has an article about this very thing and I was amused to find several hotels on their list that I'm familiar with.

The first, I've written about before, The Hyatt Regency at the Arcade in Cleveland. We've been to the Arcade often on trips downtown just to walk in the historic building and enjoy the ambiance and a cup of coffee.

We've actually stayed at the second, the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC. We were there years ago for a business convention or trade show. I remember being awed at the huge cavernous central lobby with elevators crawling up and down. The lighting and landscaping is fabulous. It was a real treat and thankfully a business deduction.

Another that I was a bit surprised to see was Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas. I don't think it compares with the elegance of some of the others but certainly is very interesting as are most of the hotels along the Strip. It is quite a tour to just go and walk through the lobbies of the hotels. They are each unique and did I mention they each have unique restaurants and shops?

Also on the list was one will will have to check out soon on our next road trip west, The Glacier Park Lodge. Who new a park lodge would rate as a lavish hotel lobby?

The next time you are in need of a little luxury but it's not in the budget, stop in and have a look see at some of the big hotel lobbies in the area and maybe splurge at one of their restaurants. After all, hopefully you've saved some money staying at the Holiday Inn.

Once Upon A Night At The Palace

There are always temptations coming into my mailbox be it email or snail mail. I don't always get a chance to look at them right away so I file them away for those nights when when there's nothing on TV or the days when the weather is nasty and I dream of getting away again. Here's a little something from one of those emails from TripAdvisor. Did you know there are lots of palace hotels in the world where you can spend the night?

Perusing the menu presented by the email from TripAdvisor, I found I could stay in a variety of places in India, Turkey, Austria, Russia, Venice, and several more including Malta which is tempting since we've never been there.

I clicked on them to get some pricing--just for fun. Right? My eyeballs bulged at a couple. The offerings shown in the TripAdvisor post ranged from $218/night to over $1000/night for two nights in June. I might spend around $200 to get treated like a queen for a night but $1000? Naw. That could get me a cruise where I'd get treated pretty much like a queen for a week at least.

Palaces are nice places to visit but I guess at those prices, I'll pass at staying there--at least for now.